NEUES JAHR, NEUE ÄRA

NICHOLAS WONOSAPUTRA - Writer, 1st Year, Intended MCB Neurobiology

"Mahler: Symphony No. 3"

Originally published on Dec. 5, 2019

The largest contributor to the Legend of the Galactic Heroes’ timelessness is its undying commitment to presenting the epic, galaxy-spanning narrative in the style of a pseudo historical documentary. There are a variety of different elements that help elevate the show’s tonal consistency, which includes the documentary-esque narration, classical music, and realistic character designs. However, I would like to focus on a certain annual event that both the real world and the world within the Legend share: the new year’s celebration.

At the beginning of every major battle or event, the narrator ensures that the audience is aware of the exact month, day, and year on which the event is taking place. What serves as a method of creating immersion and solidifying the worldbuilding (the two nations use separate calendar years so both are listed when possible), also serves as a way of creating a sense of progress within the narrative, reminding the audience that a lot has happened within the span of just a few years.

This emphasis on the progression of time makes every new year’s celebration in the show feel extremely gratifying and deserved, as if the audience, in watching the struggles and triumphs of the characters during that time, had played a role in giving the characters a reason to celebrate the new year, and to look forward to what is to come.

But this also comes with the ingenious caveat in that the rejection, or even ruin, of a new year’s celebration will result in a very jarring experience, as if the audience is slapped in the face. This often occurs when characters are in dire peril, or their plans go horribly wrong. This reality check helps reinforce the peril as something that precedes the acknowledgement of progress, and is as though the show is trying to tell the audience: “stay on the edge of your seat, the celebration will have to wait.” Thus, the audience is fully invested in the situation, and when the situation is resolved and the characters are elated in surviving to see the new year, the audience is swept up in that elation, and will vividly remember that conflict and resolution.

This aspect of the new year’s celebration also applies to tragic, irreversible events like character death. When the new year arrives while the characters are grieving for the fallen, the characters are reminded of the flow of time, and that, no matter what they do, they could never bring back the dead. But the new year also reminds them that they must move on, if not for the sake of the fallen, then for the sake of the future, because, as far as they are concerned, their mission isn’t done yet. Thus, the characters put on faint smiles and do their best to raise a glass to the dead, and look towards the future with renewed resolve.

In the long flow of time, living things know nothing of their ancestors, except for the genes they’ve inherited. Only mankind has history. Having a history differentiates mankind from all other living species. That’s why I wanted to be a historian.

-Yang Wenli (Episode 35)